I Tried 3Doodler 3D Printing Pen at CES 2014 and All I Could Draw Was This Terrible-Looking Dog

LAS VEGAS—A lot of people think 3-D printing machines are still too bulky and expensive, especially if all they want to reproduce is a simple drawing in three dimensions. A company called WobbleWorks has an answer to that: a gadget called the 3Doodler. It's the world's first 3-D printing pen, which made its wildly successful debut on Kickstarter last year—it raised more than $2 million instead of its $30,000 goal. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, WobbleWorks announced its plans to retail in 2014, and also unveiled a range of molds, nozzles and holders for the pen. I'm by no means an artist, but I visited its booth today to see if I would somehow become magically crafty after adding an extra dimension to my doodles.

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Using the 3Doodler feels like wielding a glue gun, except it's in the form of a thick black pen and the melted PLA or ABS plastic solidifies in mid-air. You plug the 3Doodler into an outlet, pipe a stick of colored plastic into its back, and you're ready to go. To melt the plastic through the extruder, press one of the two big buttons towards the front and start drawing out an object in layers. The thickness of the plastic depends on how slowly you trace your object; thicker generally means sturdier.

The company representative suggested I try drawing out a triangle first, then instructed me to bring the pen up into the air afterwards. You're supposed to pause for a while to let the plastic harden, and sometimes your 3-D sketch goes awry because you're holding the pen at a weird angle, or you've melted too little plastic too fast, or you've melted too much plastic and produced these big, colored globs. In my case, I was able to draw out a very simple pyramid, then eventually a blobby-looking dog (pictured above).

The 3Doodler might seem like a hobbyist's product at first, but a member of the team told me that it's starting to be widely used in architecture and arts and craft projects. Indeed, all over WobbleWorks' booth, some pretty impressive models were on display: a ferris wheel, the Eiffel Tower, a model airplane. Some of those things took several hours to trace out though, and I'm certain it would have taken me days. Still, the company rep told me that there are a few quick applications for the 3-D printing pen, like drawing yourself a key holder for your room or a decorative hanging ornament. Using the 3Doodler is also made easier with the company's introduction of molds for letters, numbers and shapes to help you get started with it quickly.

The 3Doodler 3-D printing pen is available for pre-order today and will be available at Brookstone's retail stores, the online store ThinkGeek, the MoMA Store, and Maker Shed later this year.